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Monday, 17 September 2012

A second batch of 62 Ukraine-made BTR-4 armoured vehicles ready to be send in Iraq.

Within the large-scale Ukrainian-Iraqi contract on supplies of Ukrainian military equipment to the Republic of Iraq the second batch of BTR-4 (wheeled armored personnel carrier), containing 62 units, was loaded to the Odesa Commercial Sea Port for further marine transportation. The shipment is expected to be completed by September 13 whereafter the ship will sail to the destination country. The expected time of arrival to the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr is early October of 2012. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Iraq in Ukraine Shorsh Khalid Said, who in the interview to Ukrainian journalists highly ranked the Ukrainian BTR-4 armored personnel carrier, was in attendance at the shipment process. "We are very pleased to accept the second batch of Ukrainian BTR-4. This is a powerful modern vehicle, the quality of which satisfies Iraqi specialists," said the Ambassador to the press.

The BTR-4s were assembled at the Kharkiv facility under a contract worth more than $550 million for the supply of Ukrainian military equipment to Iraq. The deal was finalised in 2009 by a state-run subsidiary of Ukrspecexport.

The first batch of 26 BTR-4s, two maintenance vehicles, and two BTR crew-training simulators were delivered to Iraq in the spring of 2011, with he first two An-32 aircraft delivered in late 2011. Another two aircraft were supplied in April of this year, while the remaining two An-32s will be delivered in June.